John P > Recent Status Updates

not sure I'm following everything, skipped from kindle to audiobook. interesting but not super compelling to me yet.

totally not what I expected! I somehow had imagined dipping directly to eurovision meets the fifth element, but there’s a lot more interesting sci fi alien ideas. Way more “alien” that I expected, they’re very creative.

I really wish I had read the Culture books before the wasp factory. just doesn’t hit the same way.

not finding it very compelling

trouble getting into it, might look for a different entry point to discworld.

have read:
The Screwfly Solution
The Girl Who Was Plugged In
The Women Men Ignore

I am floored by the depth, development, and horror of these stories. Deeply disturbing and dark, but in an incredibly fun way? The frankness and vividness are shocking (e.g. the ending scene of Girl) hits like a freight truck after the slow build of character descriptions.

Really liked chap 7.

"Feminist masculinity presupposes that it is enough for males to be to have value, that they do not have to “do,” to “perform,” to be affirmed and loved. Rather than defining strength as “power over,” feminist masculinity defines strength as one’s capacity to be responsible for self and others."

The section on ability to do violence when needed was very interesting.

A few things I’m still not sure about in here, but in general it’s been very helpful for me to frame the discussion of a world and relationships without patriarchy. As a father to young boys, I really wonder what things are nature vs nurture or patriarchy.

I’m finding the middle third a bit less compelling than the beginning. It also is more energy to read. I’m not convinced of the accuracy of the portrayal of patriarchy, violence, and masculinity. I may need to push through to grasp her full argument and come back to challenge or be challenged by some of the points she’s making here.

I’m getting more into it, although I feel like I’m missing some of the subtle layers of plot and interaction by not listening as carefully as I would read.

Re-reading for next months book club. I bought the libro.fm audiobook so this can be my “listen while doing chores” for a week or two.

Some parts have aged horribly, and some are fine. The exploration of how the two cultures are “ruling” after the war is interesting. The layers and layers of casual racism isn’t.

Pretty good, it’s interesting to read some different feminine takes on the problems masculinity today.

it’s ok. not really getting into it. it keeps hitting the same notes but not really building on it. future tech is cool but not weird enough for me.

Great so far. I’ve been looking forward this for a while after following the author on Twitter. It’s a lot to get into, as it is a split timeline before/after some cataclysm that made all tech working, but there is some great commentary on how we use tech and several great activist characters. it’s very topical.

loved the first section. supremely weird, fun legalism ideas, very curious to see where it goes